Linux - how few know of it

[miriam_e]

When I meet people and discussion falls to computers, as it often does, I've often been surprised at how few people know of Linux. They generally think that putting up with Microsoft Windows is their only option. When told that Linux is a free operating system that can either replace, or co-exist with Microsoft Windows they tend to be either surprised or skeptical. This astounds me. How did Microsoft manage to so impoverish the computing world? Not only have they retarded computing technology by a decade or more, but they have blinded many people to even the possibility of advancement -- a very sad state of affairs.

Thank heavens it is slowly changing. Years ago Linux was something only computer geeks used. Now I know a broad range (but still a tiny minority) of people who have dropped Microsoft Windows, preferring the safety and lower cost of Linux... and in the case of Puppy Linux, the ease of use, speed, tiny size, and ability to revive old computers making them usable again. I think part of the change is coming simply from word of mouth, but also from live CDs, where people can try Linux before installing it on their machines.

On that last point, I've noticed an annoying number of computers recently that have their BIOS set up to prevent booting from a CD. It is easy to change, but most people don't even know what a BIOS is, let alone how to go into their SETUP to change the boot-device order. [sigh]

A ray of hope: lately Linux users seem to outnumber Apple Mac users on the net. (Thank heavens Apple didn't win the war for the desktop -- computer use would be even further retarded than with Microsoft. Apple are masters of propaganda.)

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

How did Microsoft manage to so impoverish the computing world?

Large advertising budgets?
That, and Linux was almost unusable not so long ago.

I've noticed an annoying number of computers recently that have their BIOS set up to prevent booting from a CD

I have mine set up like that. It's a small thing, but it helps sleep the boot process a smidge.

but most people don't even know what a BIOS is, let alone how to go into their SETUP to change the boot-device order. [sigh]

Most people should never touch their BIOS.

I think part of the change is coming simply from word of mouth, but also from live CDs, where people can try Linux before installing it on their machines.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Large advertising budgets?

I think Apple spends more on advertising than Microsoft does.
It is probably the relative difficulty, until recently, of using Linux and the undeserved reputation of being purely for geeks.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I think Apple spends more on advertising than Microsoft does.

Now perhaps. And maybe over all, but I think a lot of the (mass market) advertising costs are sunk into the frou-frou applications like the iPhone and iPad and iPod. Or into subliminal marketing for their laptops.
Hell, I'm no longer sure what the latest iteration of the Mac OS is - OSX - Leopard? Tiger? Occelot? I've no idea.

It is probably the relative difficulty, until recently, of using Linux and the undeserved reputation of being purely for geeks.

I may have mentioned this before, but I tried to get my partner to at least try a live disc version of Ubuntu late last year and she wouldn't have it since stuff like iTunes (I know) wouldn't work as simply.
She just wanted the same, familiar OS she used at work, and that's that.

It's a losing battle.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Familiarity is an incredibly powerful thing.

I've considered writing a big piece on how we often don't know what we like. We get mixed up easily and confuse some things (familiarity, and other people's likes) with what we actually like. It sounds weird to think that we can believe we like something, when we actually don't, but it does seem to be the case. Anyhow... I'll leave that for another day.

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I'm still finding Linux much harder to use when I have to introduce something new. Granted, I'm not computer oriented at all. In fact, I'd almost go so far as to say I hate it when I have to learn new things about computers and how they work. When something doesn't work on my computer, I very easily freak out and I'm not like that normally. That said, my laptop would be dead by now if I hadn't switched. Windows was running so much shit in the background that I could feel it burning out (physically) and I use a computer mostly for the basics. I write, I go online, I do school work. I don't dl huge files or play video games on it. I don't remember how old you are (I'm 27), but I find that most people my age know what Linux is these days. It's also getting more prevalent in the world in general... apparently, my university library is in the process of changing the catalogue over to Linux.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with my computers... actually more hate than love. :) I am continually amazed at how little computing has progressed in the past few decades. Usability should have advanced much further than it has. Thankfully the OpenSource movement has started to pull us out of stagnation, though I'm concerned at the tendency for Linux now to look and act more like MSWindows in order to chase after mainstream acceptance. We should be running away from Microsoft's mistakes.

The best thing about Linux is that it is perfectly suited to most people who do the things you mentioned. Puppy Linux for instance, comes with wordprocessor, webpage editor, spreadsheet editor, database, diary, (online) dictionary, easy internet connectivity, web browser, email program, chat, torrent, ftp, web server(!), a (primitive) paint program, vector graphics editor, music players/recorders/converters that can use most sound formats, a movie player that can immediately play almost any video format without needing to download and install extra codecs, and hundreds of smaller utilities. All this in a tiny operating system (less than 100MB -- that's less than a 6th of a CD) that you can boot from a CD or flash drive.

I don't play games either, and games have always been Microsoft's great attraction, but even that is starting to change with increasing numbers of games available for Linux (for example FlightGear, which is used for research and to teach people how to fly a plane... oh, and it is free).

Age? I feel like I'm in my early twenties, but unfortunately am more than twice that. I know saying I feel that young sounds clichéd, but it is true -- I really feel that age... perhaps because I'm quite blind to time. I wonder if anybody ever really grows up... and if they do, what it would feel like.

It is encouraging to hear that people in your part of the world are more acquainted with Linux. Sadly one of the things that prompted me to write the above post was that I volunteered for the Leukaemia Foundation doorknock appeal for donations and at one of the houses I met a guy (would have been late teens, early twenties) who was using his computer and when I asked if he used Linux he looked puzzled and asked me where you buy it. :(

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

Oh well. Perhaps it is the crowd I hang out with that skews my view. I mostly hang out with slightly geeky people with post-secondary education. Maybe that's why they know?

Also, I don't see anything wrong with copying the aesthetics of Windows and some of the functionality as long as opensoure programmers don't start making the mistake of having 5 billion things run in the background... and at least try to correct some of the other bugs. I'm running on Debian (I'd have to find the boot cd, if you are curious exactly which Debian), and one of the things I love about it is that you download pretty much only the core system. The boot cd, though, includes hundreds of apps you can choose to download afterwards. Don't play card games? You don't have them! Don't use flash card programs? You don't have them! And etc., but many little apps like that are available for quick install from the boot cd if you do use them! It's really advantage in terms of memory, too, especially if you are running a laptop since it means so few things you don't use take up room on your computer.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Debian is certainly one of the best Linuxes. I keep a version installed on one of my drives, because of the astonishing amount of software that is available to it. I still really like it because it is a very "pure" Linux that doesn't have any closed source stuff in it. Interesting bit of trivia: the name comes from the couple who started it -- Deb and Ian (Debra Lynn and Ian Murdock). [Huh... a quick search on the net to verify my memory was correct led to this (http://pix.321.hu/cindy_margolis_uses_debian.jpg) surprising photo... Debian girlie pinups???? Who'd have thought?]

Puppy is mostly compatible with Slackware and Debian. I've often installed Debian and Slackware packages in Puppy... and occasionally Fedora packages. The first Puppy was built from Fedora, but later used a Slackware kernel. Now it is really its own beast, compiled from scratch.

Ubuntu is built upon Debian, but I think they've relaxed the rules about open vs closed source. A pity.

I used to enjoy using Mandrake, but lost track of it since it became Mandriva.

Red Hat/Fedora was always too corporate for my liking.

Years ago I bought and installed a full disk-set of SuSE, but they're being lured into Microsoft's poisonous embrace, so I steer clear of them now.

Gentoo, Corel Linux, Caldera, Vector, Knoppix, DamnSmallLinux, and many, many more... Heavens, there are oodles of them now! And that's before you consider all the one-off specials, like 64Studio -- a multimedia variant of Debian specifically for artists, and NaNoWriMo Puppy just for writers (lots of Puppy variants here (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Puppy_Linux/Puplets)). And then there are devices that are devoted to Linux, like the Zaurus handheld, and the Nokia n900, and to some extent Google's Nexus 1 (built on a combination of Linux and BSD).

You can download an amazing, enormous diagram of the history of Linux distributions at http://futurist.se/gldt/ where they record 270 different distros!!! Wow! It really becomes clear from that diagram just how incredibly important Debian is. It has parented much of the scene.

The times are a-changing (slowly).

[beyondfake-0.livejournal.com]

You forget that Microsoft isn't alone, and that Apple has its share of responsibility of retarding the computer world. Actually I would think that they are more responsible than Microsoft. But that is a huge can of worms that I will refrain from getting into.

I love Linux, I have Ubuntu on my Eeepc. However, Ubuntu is the easiest of all the Linux OS to use. The vast majority of people are intimidated by technology so much, or they tell themselves they will never get it, so some thing like Linux is a little more intimidating for people to learn.

I have Windows 7 on my desktop, and I love it. Some days it's nice to sit down and just have everything run smoothly, and not have to worry about software issues.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I agree totally. Apple is even more anti-technology than Microsoft -- that's epitomised by the single mouse button silliness, but there are many other things they have done to retard change -- their motto seems to be dumb down, but make pretty. Worse than that is their compulsion to control everything. Thank heavens they didn't end up controlling the world.

My computers are all old and slow so Ubuntu, Windows, and most distributions of Linux are too big and too slow for them. Puppy fits perfectly.

Installing software is still the biggest problem for Linux, though it is getting better.

Windows 7 works nicely... until it doesn't. My nephew is a great fan of it and has had to re-install a number of times already because of infections, and I notice everytime I show him stuff from one of my thumbdrives when I look at the drive on my machines later it always has a virus posing as autorun.inf on it. It is lovely to know it can't affect my computers. :)

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

I don't know what a BIOS is. I know about Linux just not much about it. Maybe someday I'll learn.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. It is contained in a small ROM (Read Only Memory) chip on the mother board of your computer. (The motherboard is the big circuit board that holds everything together in your computer, and into which a number of daughter boards can plug to add extra capabilities.

The BIOS can have many of its settings altered by going into the SETUP program, usually by pressing the DEL key soon after you've switched your computer on, while there is white writing on a black screen and it is whizzing through numbers counting how much memory it has is a simple memory test. Some computers use a different key or even a key-combination to go to the setup program.

It is harmless to look at it. Just be sure to change only the things that are useful. Usually you can save the changes by pressing the F10 key to exit and save. Pressing the ESC key usually exits without saving (good if you've changed something you shouldn't). It will tell you all this on its screens.

I don't think many people understand all of the settings (I don't), but it is amazing how much you can understand just by looking and reading the hints (most BIOS setups are very helpful these days), just don't get hung up on what you don't understand and it can become quite a fun exercise.

Weirdly, after you do this a few times you'll find you understand things you didn't the first time through even without looking at further reference material. Our brains are the strangest things.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Oh... I should have mentioned that the BIOS has nothing to do with Linux. It is just the simple software that lets the computer know how to use its own hardware like drives, keyboard, daughterboards, network connector, clock chip, and so on.

The operating system (Linux, MSWindows, BSD, AmigaDOS, BeOS, OS/2, etc) sits on top of that.

Incidentally, if you ever want to try out Puppy Linux try downloading this:
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-4.3.1/pup-431.iso
and burning it to CD as a disk image (not as a normal data file)... or I would be delighted to post you a disk for free if you email me your postal address. I'm mim at miriam-english dot org

As I mentioned earlier, you don't need to install Puppy Linux. It can be run from the CD without touching your hard drive, even letting you remove the CD so that you can read or write other CDs or DVDs. That's very useful if your computer crashes badly because you can use Puppy to rescue your files if the computer won't boot into MSWindows. I've used it this way to help other people to backup their files after a catastrophe.

You can choose to install it on the hard drive or not. Even if you decide to install it, you don't need to remove your existing operating system. Puppy is very friendly and will happily co-exist with other operating systems.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Goodness. You didn't have to explain all that. Thank you though. :)
Let me try downloading it first and if I have trouble then I'll except your offer. I'd rather save you the postage.
Truth is that the technology isn't an area of interest for me so I try not to mess with it so much. Generally it annoys me to mess with it.
I do have a friend that runs linux and I've seen her get confused using my machine.
I suppose the same might be my experience if I did switch over but I'd be confused about linux.

What's the benefit of working with linux? Is there a benefit if one still has both operating systems?
What's a daughterboard?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It is no trouble to post a CD if you have difficulty burning the iso to a disk (just remember that an iso file is a disk image, not ordinary data, so look for where your CD-burning software lets you burn a disk image). It costs hardly anything to post to the other side of the planet, and honestly, what else can you buy with a couple of dollars these days? :)

I used to use MSWindows all the time because of my work, and had felt that MSWindows was pretty intuitive and easy to use, however after having been away from it for some years now I can tell you that it isn't. I originally found Puppy a bit confusing, but now I find it much, much easier than MSWindows. How much of that is just being used to it? Probably quite a bit, however I installed Puppy Linux on my parents' machine some years ago when their MSWindows installation became flakey and crashed badly. They are in their 70s and 80s and have had little problem adapting to it.

Linux is much safer from viruses and other malware. There are hundreds of thousands of viruses written specifically for MSWindows, but only a few for Linux.

Linux is generally extremely difficult to break into because of its design, whereas MSWindows seems to have been designed explicitly to allow intrusions. (The French secret service released a report exposing a number of NSA spooks who work as executives at Microsoft, and various backdoors into MSWindows have been found, along with the weird ability of people sharing MSWord documents being able to steal other documents by getting MSWord to sneakily embed them in a document. Add to this the fact that Microsoft's MediaPlayer reports to a database at Microsoft on what you watch and listen to, and when you register a Microsoft program online it sends them a list of all your software. And also there is the strange fastfind program that comes with MSOffice which compiles lists of everything on your machine, but doesn't seem to speed your searches at all, and there is the fact that MSWindows quietly records everything you view in a folder which is kept invisible. You simply can't access it under MSWindows. I was astonished that there was gigabytes of hidden stuff on my last MSWindows machine.)

Linux distributions also include an excellent firewall that blocks all unwanted traffic, letting your machine remain invisible on the net. Imagine a street of houses with a burglar walking to each in turn trying the front door to find an unlocked, or easily picked one. One of the houses is cloaked in an invisibility shield so he doesn't even bother with it thinking it is an empty lot. Microsoft's firewall doesn't work very well. If you use MSWindows you would be better off using ZoneAlarm's free firewall.

My parents have Linux, and my nephew recently installed MSWindows on it too so that my Dad could play some games. We thought it might be useful because it would force him to focus his attention, but in an enjoyable way. So, yes, having both operating systems can be useful. When I was moving to Linux I kept MSWindows for a long time too.

A daughterboard is one of those cards about (4x5 inches) that plugs into your motherboard to give you extra capabilities, like video card, ethernet, internal modem, extra ports, video digitiser, sound card, and so on. You don't see them as much anymore now though, because most motherboards have all these (except video digitiser) integrated into their own chipset. You can still add daughterboards though if, for example, the sound dies on your computer, or you want faster video output, etc.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know if I have trouble downloading it and putting it on a cd.
Microsoft is creepy for sure. That's pretty obvious.
Okey so if I get the Puppy Linux, MS and Puppy are both operating systems right? So how do I figure which is operating what?
Right now for security I use Trend Micro which I'm not terribly impressed with but I've got a subscription so till it runs out I'm not too concerned about switching to something else. Though I'm not exactly sure what I'll switch to when it does. I probably ought to be prepared for that.
This computer is getting older (for a computer) and unlike many people I don't figure it's a given that I just chuck it out after a while and get another. I'd rather make it last as long as possible. I don't like wasting money. I wonder if Linux can extend the life.
I know there's loads of shit stuck in this computer I don't need but I've not the expertise to know how to clean it all out without throwing away something vital.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It is easier than you think.

If you boot from the CD you can leave it in the drive each time you want to use Linux and take it out when you want to use MSWindows.

If you decide after some time (weeks or months?) of getting used to Linux that you like it enough you can install it on the machine so you don't need the CD anymore.

But that is some time away and there are about 5 different ways to do it, each variation suiting a different person and how they use the computer. Each different way is simple and easy to do, with Puppy holding your hand each step of the way. I'll also talk you through it if you don't feel confident about it.

In MSWindows all your data should be in the user's documents and settings folder. I so rarely use MSWindows anymore I can't recall off-hand exactly where, but just a few minutes of patient looking around with Linux will show you where MSWindows keeps your stuff. When it is found you can save it off to either DVDs or an external hard drive in case MSWindows dies at some future date. I would not advise getting rid of MSWindows for perhaps a year or two... until you are fully certain that you won't need it again. If there is any uncertainty on that then you should keep MSWindows on the machine indefinitely, even if you swap over to using Linux 100% of the time. Puppy Linux takes up so little room it doesn't matter much if MSWindows stays on the drive. Who knows when you might need to use it again?

I advocate the most cautious approach possible.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

I think I'd rather just install it than leave it on cd.
If I download puppy linux from here
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-4.3.1/pup-431.iso
like you said and just want to install it instead of keep it on the cd, would there be any reason to burn it to a cd?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to install without burning it to CD. It might be possible to install to a flash drive without booting from a CD first, though I'm not sure how... I haven't done it (I can find out if you'd like). I can't imagine how you would install directly to the hard drive without booting from a CD.

I'd never thought about it before. Interesting point.

It really is easiest to burn the image to CD so that you can boot from it and then decide whether to keep the Puppy CD for occasionally booting to Linux or perhaps installing it to your machine later so it runs from your hard drive. If you install to the hard drive then you will probably want to install grub (it is an optional part of the Linux installation process) to give you a boot menu which lets you choose whether to boot to MSWindows or Linux.

But I'd leave hard drive installation til later. Burn to CD first and test drive it first.

If you really want it on the hard drive it is always a good idea to back up your MSWindows data. It is very unlikely anything will go wrong, but MSWindows doesn't play nicely with others and you never know.

If you have another old obsolete computer perhaps try installing it there first. You can pick up old second hand computers for $10 or $20, sometimes even less. The good thing about installing Puppy on them is that they will run faster than they did under MSWindows and make the machines usable again.

I'd advise that you DON'T get rid of MSWindows on your main machine. Much as I dislike Microsoft and their operating systems, I have known some people who really don't like Linux. I would feel terrible if you did something irreversible and found yourself regretting it. Always give yourself a way back out of a situation.

When I changed over to Linux I did it gradually and pretty painlessly. I started with a bootable CD that I would play around with at odd times til I got the hang of it enough to want to install it. Then I shared the machine with Linux and MSWindows. Over time I gradually used Linux more than MSWindows, and after some years eventually deleted it from my drive(s) when I realised I just wasn't using it anymore. Now I don't have MSWindows on any of my computers, however I keep a spare drive with MSWindows on it for one of my laptops that I can swap into it if I ever need to use MSWindows. It has only been necessary once in the last couple of years, but it is nice to always have the option there.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Hmm, okay. I'm just less likely to use it if I have to keep using it from cd. I like my cd drive available for other things.
I don't tend to mess with such things much. I don't know enough to really and if anything I've often found it annoying. Who knows, that could just be my experience with Microsoft.
I don't have any spare computers or drives I can store stuff on so that's not an option.
Well, we'll see I guess.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Booting Puppy, even from from CD, generally takes a lot less time than booting MSWindows, and once Puppy is running you can take the CD out of the drive, freeing the drive for other things. Puppy is so small it can sit entirely in RAM... providing you have enough memory in your computer, and most reasonably modern machines do.

You'll find booting from CD is less bother than you think. When you shut it down Puppy will ask if you want to save your session to a file on your computer. If you answer no then when next you boot MSWindows or Puppy there will be no trace of the fact you'd previously been running Puppy. But if you choose to save what you'd done it will store a small file on the hard drive which will not interfere with MSWindows, but will contain all your changes so that on your next reboot of Puppy it will remember what you have done... sort of a halfway point between installing and not installing Puppy.

I used to run one of my machines entirely from a Puppy CD because it was a very old, slow computer. It had plenty of RAM, and because RAM runs much faster than a hard drive I never bothered to install Puppy onto that machine's hard drive -- it actually ran considerably faster by booting from the CD. I used the hard drive purely for storing data. So in certain cases it can be preferable to not install to the hard drive. It boots a little slower from the CD than the hard drive, but still faster than MSWindows does.

I have to go out today, so I can't look now, but I recently stumbled across a tiny, free program that burns iso disk images to CD. I can't remember its name offhand, but I have a note somewhere here about it. I'll be back home tonight and can find it then if you like... or I can post off a Puppy CD to you... absolutely no trouble.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Well if I can take it back out and have it still run that's cool.
I'm thinking my partner might want to convert his older desktop computer too.
And I'm thinking I will take you up on the offer of the Puppy Cd. :)
You're so kind.
Thank you.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Hey, we got the CD and DVD. Thank you!
I haven't tried it yet but I will. :)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Okay, two important things to do when you set it up...

First, click once (single-click in Puppy, not double-click) the "console" icon on the desktop. That opens the command line. Now type in "passwd" (without the quote marks). This will prompt you to set the password for the "root" user. Unlike most versions of Linux Puppy makes you the superuser, also known as root. Set the password to something that you will remember. Make it longer than 6 characters, don't use a normal word that can be found in a dictionary search. I tend to use numbers in one or more parts of the password too as that makes it even harder to break. Now that you have a private password it becomes virtually impossible for anybody to break into Puppy from outside, yet it is exceptionally easy to use from the keyboard.

The second thing to do comes after you have set up the network connection, which is done by clicking once on the "connect" icon on the desktop and choosing the button that is relevant (most probably "internet by network or wireless LAN"). There are help buttons at the bottom of the dialog that give you more info. When you have connected to the net then click on the "connect" icon again, and this time choose "setup a firewall". Follow the prompts and you will have a machine that is virtually impenetrable, yet extremely friendly for you to use.

If you get stuck with anything (you will -- you are not used to it yet) then try Puppy's help system (the "Help" icon on the desktop). If you still can't work it out (bound to be a few things you can't understand in the early stages) then please do contact me and I'll do what I can to help you sort it out. There is also a forum for Puppy users that is great for finding out answers to odd things:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/

When you get used to Puppy I'm sure you will find it a delight.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all your help with this. I've been pretty busy but I want to get to this soon. Maybe tomorrow.
I'm sure I'll be okay with it but I'll let you know if I'm stumped.
:)
Again, thank you.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

No worries. Always happy to help. Ask anything any time. If I don't know the answer I'll do my best to find out.

Just go at your own rate and when you feel like it. No sense rushing it or trying to explore when something else is pushing at you. This way exploring the machine can be fun, in spite of the frustration that can occur... like how a puzzle or a suspense story can be enjoyable because of the frustration. :)

You'll find it will open a new door in your life.

unKnown gnu O.S. on Linux kernel

[(Anonymous)]

try to write the same article about how many "Linux" users know they actualy are not using LinuxOS but GNU O.S...:-)

let put jokes side...

at our skillExchange linux workShop at hackLab mama I realized years ago that GNU/Linux advocacy is not a technology thing...
It s a area of psychology, sociology, culture & succecfull transFiguration of creativity inSide of close/semiClosed community...

unix & gnu/linux is not windows...nor it ever be one
it is not AmigaOS, MorphOS, Haiku (Open BeOS), MacOS, QNX, gnu/hurd nor Plan9...
It can by mimcry to emulate the concept & philosophy of those systems...

we as a community must comprehend that, only than we can expect something else from "ordinary" users...

First we should unPlug from Matrix...

power to the linux chix

drGspot

Re: unKnown gnu O.S. on Linux kernel

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:) True. It is really Gnu/Linux, but that's more typing, and few people would know what I was talking about anyway. I know it annoys Richard Stallman and others, but that's how it goes. Language is created by the general population, no matter how much we would like to say otherwise. We still refer to the act of pushing the buttons on a phone as "dialling" even though most kids these days probably have not even seen an actual phone dial.

It will be interesting to see what the future brings. I just hope to hell it speeds up a little. It's changing far too slowly for my liking. Where are the intelligent machines? Where are the low power machines running on ambient energy? Where are the mesh networks to let anybody communicate with anybody for free? Where are the robots? Where is the ubiquitous VR? Where are the computers that require zero learning curve? Where are the replicators? Dammit, I want my future now!! :)

Corporations seem to become more and more technophobic as time goes on and at best indifferent to potential improvements, at worst the actively retard developments. Sony, a company founded by engineers, has become a corporation of thick-headed suits who do their best to subvert and delay progress. Microsoft are renown for their anti-future attitude. All the petroleum companies do their best to discourage progress into useful alternatives. I don't want a future of universal indentured serfdom -- I want utopia, and I want it now... or as soon as possible.